Singin' the Oskar Blues

Or: How I learned that I really need a designated driver for this event.

I’ll start right off with a straightforward list of what I managed to scrounge up:

1) Victory - Hop Devil
2) Middle Ages - Swallow Wit
3) Tap & Mallet/Rohrbachs - McBane’s Best Bitter (A)
4) Saranac - Pale Ale
5) Warsteiner – Dunkel
6) Spaten – Oktoberfest
7) Southern Tier – Harvest Ale
8) Brasserie d’Achouffe – La Chouffe *
9) JW Dundee - Honey Brown
10) JW Dundee - Oktoberfest
11) Lagunitas – IPA
12) Tap & Mallet/Rohrbachs – McBane’s Best Bitter (B)
13) Sackets Harbor – Pale Ale
14) Long Trail – Pale Ale
15) Tap & Mallet/Rohrbachs – McBane’s Best Bitter (C)
16) Victory – Hop Wallop
* Distributed/presented at the festival by Ommegang

One of the highlights of the night was the Tap & Mallet booth. The woman who poured my first glass explained to me, unsolicited, that the reason the tap was labeled with the type of hops was because they had three different casks with them. That’s right, three casks of pub owner Joe McBane’s own recipe. When I asked one of the other main employees of the joint about the style, he said that the main recipe remained the same, with a different type of hop added during the dry hopping process for each one of the casks. Up first was a batch with Kent Golding, which proved without question to have the most bitterness out of any of the three. The second batch was dry hopped with Amarillo hops, which gave it a mellower flavor, but with a little bit of bitterness retention. The third and final batch of the night was done with Centennial hops, which proved to be the least flavorful of the three. I’m just glad I was able to catch all three of them.

Another thing that impressed me was the number of breweries who had pourers that actually knew how to dispense the suds properly, with a number of my 3ish ounce samples have just the right amount of head for such a small glass. One woman who was pouring for Victory went so far as to instruct me when to tilt the glass and when to straighten up, as she was holding a bottle in each hand in order to help the line move along a little quicker.

One of the surprise beers of the night was the Sackets Harbor Pale Ale. Having bought six packs of their 1812 lager before, I knew they were a decent brewery, but didn’t want to try something I’d already had. Their pale ale provides an immense rush of hops; far more than most pale ales that I’ve tried. Especially after having been on the tail end of my drinking, I had figured that things would start losing a little bit of their flavor.

One major disappointment, for the second year in a row, was the crowd. With the extra space, it looks like they just sold extra tickets to fill it right back up. Lines really weren’t too bad as long as you knew how to work them, but just moving from one vendor to the next was a horrible pain in the ass. The crowd volume, coupled with the two stages of deafening live bands, meant you had to shout to your friends just to hear each other from inches away.

Another major disappointment was the fact that many breweries were, once again, horrendously under prepared for the demand. This might have been alleviated somewhat by better signage, as many places were damn near impossible to find (even with a map) unless you happened to talk to someone who’d already been there. My main gripe for the night: Oskar Blues. I ran into someone who was talking about them, and he showed me to their stand after telling me that Ten Fiddy was being poured. However, it turns out that they’d already drained their supply, and had actually packed up and left, leaving nothing behind to show that they’d even been there. Thankfully, though, the guy who’d taken me to the stand said that Ten Fiddy is now at Beers of the World – which was not the case just a couple of weeks ago when Erich was in town.

My final disappointment, which was mostly my own fault, was the lack of any beer that was too dark to see through. There were very few on hand from what I could tell, and by the time I’d finally hunted them down I had already told myself that I was done drinking for the night. And it’s a good thing I did – that one indulgence in a sample of Great Lakes’ Imperial Stout may have tipped my checkpoint .07 blow into the .08 range (just kidding! It was .12. See you on the bus!)

Overall, I’d say it was a worthwhile evening. In hindsight, I would have liked to try more beers that I’d never had before. But when you’re drinking and hanging out with friends who aren’t too concerned about what they’re ingesting, it’s easy to get swept into a state of “let’s try the closest place”. But that would not have been a problem had I not run into the same issue as last year: driving home.

New rule: I am absolutely NOT driving to this next year. Someone’s giving me a ride, or if I live downtown, I’ll just suck it up and hire a taxi. Because frankly, I’m getting really sick of having to call it a night after barely more than two pints’ worth of brew just because the event lets out early (it’s done at 10) and I have to drive home. And I know I just spent more time talking about the negatives than the positives. Frankly, that's because it's easier to piss and moan about the negatives in writing, while the positives are difficult to put into words, and are best experienced (read: tasted) first-hand.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to go pry the lid off of a Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale. Yum.